Patches of gorse (_Ulex Europæa_) — that idol of Linnæus and ornament of our English and Cambrian wastes — grow freely on the higher grounds, rivalling the purple heath in their golden bloom, and shrubs of warmer climates in their sweet perfume.

Allied to the Broom, and likewise belonging to the Papilionaceous order of leguminous plants, though not affording any known medicinal principle, the Yellow Gorse (_Ulex_) or Furze grows commonly throughout England on dry exposed plains.

From shoulder to shoulder he measured several ells and his rocklike mountainous knees were covered, as was likewise the rest of his body wherever visible, with a strong growth of tawny prickly hair in hue and toughness similar to the mountain gorse (_Ulex Europeus_).

Often, when leaves are lacking in the adult plant, being replaced by flattened stalks as in the case of the acacias, or by thorns, or green stems and twigs as in the prickly broom or _Ulex europaeus_, the first leaves of the young plant may be more highly differentiated, being pinnate in the first case and bearing three leaflets in the second instance.